Our means of accessing news has never been easier, most people get all the breaking news via social media platforms and apps and it has become a tempo of everyone’s fast-moving life.

Our ability to obtain information these days has no bounds and so learning English through the news is an excellent and super fast way of improving your English.

News sites like BBC, Sky News, CNN even platforms such as Reddit all broadcast stories around the globe. They all share clear and direct information, videos and are the perfect platform for learners like you.

It’s like having your own personal English lesson on a daily basis.

The news is based on real life issues that can affect us all. The video above is centered around something that might affect you in the near future so it makes sense to learn and even have the ability to talk about these types of events with your language friends.

Not only does fresh and current news allow you develop new vocabulary, it allows you to connect to your language partner on a real level. When you know what’s going on in different parts of the world, you’ll be able to enhance your relationship to the language and English speaker.

You sound interesting and your conversations get more stimulating!!!

Everyday presents a new opportunity

If you think about it, learning English through the news has tremendous advantages and no disadvantages at all. You have clear, direct, real-life events, in good written english to your disposal for free.

The advantages are that you will improve your English reading, listening and speaking.

The important thing here is that you start off with a piece that reflects your current level in English and work your way up. If you start by picking an article from “The Economist”, you might find it somewhat difficult to understand.

Remember English is the language you are learning. Reading or even listening to a complex and lengthy news report can be demanding and if the news piece is too long and contains lots of complicated words, it would discourage your learning.

To start off with you should be aiming for news pieces that are short and pick out the keywords to help you understand the context so you grasp the main idea behind the article. This will help you broaden your vocabulary and in turn develop your speaking and writing in English.

This is an excellent way to grow your knowledge and learn of the English language by exploiting the news world everyday.

Use the subtitles

Ultimately all good websites and apps are Equipped with subtitles in many languages.

If you’re watching a news video, play the video with the subtitles to start with. Listen to the pronunciation while watching and pause if needed to allow yourself the time to absorb the information. Then attempt to listen to the video again however this time without the subtitles and see what you understood.

With force of habit, in time you will learn more and more new words, get familiar with the accent and eventually understand the content of the news piece.

Quality vs Quantity

Pick news material that you are genuinely interested in.

Once you’ve had a chance to browse various different news sites, there will be sites/apps that clearly appeal to you as the content will grab your attention due to the way the writers present the information or you just prefer the layout.

To start with pick out an article that suits your learning level. Analyse and read this piece 2-3 times and stock up on your vocabulary and learn how these words are placed into the sentences in this specific instance.

The point is to find one or two captivating pieces a week and take the time to interpret the material, learn new words and if the opportunity arises talk about it with your language partner.

Trying to find huge quantities of news will not help you but confuse you. So go for quantity and material that you actually are interested in. Too much can be a motivation killer.

At with the speed at which news channels and website churn out information, you really do not have any lack of unique content to talk about. The news provides enough topics of conversation to maintain yours and your language partners motivation to learn as there is always something for everyone.

A word of warning: Try and stick to material that is not offensive to others, avoid religion, politics, war or even money if you do not know the person very well. There are plenty of other light hearted news pieces and reports are out there – sports, technology, film and cinema, animals, travel… and the list goes on.